From the Emerald City
by lovepb13
Summary: Booksical. Glinda contemplates her sham of a marriage and gets a visitor. Gelphie.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Greogorie Magoire's_ Wicked  
_

She sighed as she slipped between the powder blue Gillikinese sheets and felt their cold on her what skin wasn't covered by her similarly blue nightgown, one had to match. Sleeping is no excuse for poor fashion.

Staring at the ceiling she wondered how long it would take before her body relented to her mind and allowed her to slip into another dreamless sleep. Would she see the candles burn out again like the night before or would her time lying awake be mercifully short? She doubted the later, she hadn't slept well since Shiz, something was always keeping her awake and it wasn't the lack of Nanny snoring from the adjacent room that she was missing.

Sighing again she blew a stray strand of spun gold hair from her face and narrowed her eyes in frustration. Snoring, it was definitely not snoring she was missing. She could hear her husband snoring from the other wing of the palace and though she had been prone to exaggeration in her youth, and if she was truthful still was, she was not exaggerating. Still, at least it gave her an excuse to squirrel herself away from him each night and stew in peace.

"_Still no little ones at your ankles I see." _

Her mother had uttered this for what seemed to Glinda to be the millionth time on her visit earlier that day. She had been sipping tea from the finest china cup and had managed to look both concerned and angry at the same time. She was staying through the end of the month, Glinda was contemplating taking to drink.

Glinda was starting to worry that people would begin to question her title as Lady Chuffrey if she didn't produce a child soon, they had been married for over a year after all, leaving it any longer would just be improper. Of course she would have nothing to worry about if it were that she was simply unable to conceive but inability to conceive was not what was preventing Glinda from learning the joys of motherhood.

Mechanics, she supposed it was all to do with mechanics.

Mechanics in the sense that there was none and would continue to be none as long as Glinda got her own way.

That was the real reason she was worried. Technically she was a free woman, not yet married until the _deed _was done.

Glinda scrunched her name up at the thought and once again found her thoughts drifting back to those nights spent in Shiz or on the road to the Emerald City. The EC had seemed so exotic and mysterious then; she had thought she could easily spend her whole life drinking in the sheer construction of the place, how wrong she had been.

Shaking her head to rid herself of those thoughts she tried to remember a song that she had had sung as a child, one of those happily ever after songs that mother's sang to their children to trick them into thinking that everything would turn out right in the end. The tune came easily, one of those floaty tunes that seemed to hang in the air even after the lyrics had had their say and had persisted in the humming of all those around in, but the words were harder to grasp. She was vaguely aware that it began with a rhyme and ended in a couplet but beyond that there was just one line from the chorus that she could remember.

'_Take me away, back to a better day'_

She repeated the line over and over in her head, trying to figure out what came next. Finally she gave in and sang it aloud, soft and tentative lest one of the servants heard her.

"Take me away, back to a better day..." She sang, her eyes searching the flickering of the ceiling light for some clue as to what was to come next.

"To see your face, sink in your warm embrace." A beautiful voice finished, putting her rendition of the previous line to shame. Still, it wasn't as if she had been anticipating an audience.

Alarmed, Glinda's eyes went wide and she shot up in bed.

"Who's there?" She said in what she hoped was a confident tone.

"Don't you recognise my voice? You pestered me to hear it often enough and I relented of course, as I always did." The voice said, losing its lyrical quality in speech.

"Elphie?" Glinda's voice was hardly a whisper, more of gasping intake of breath than an actual attempt to speak. "Is it really you?"

A figure stepped forward from the shadows, candlelight making the soft skin glow the colour of freshly cut spring grass and the jet black hair shine like a night time lake when the moon cape up to greet it. Dark eyes met hers, lighter than she remembered.

"Hello Galinda." Elphaba said, smiling almost shyly, if Elphaba was capable of being shy.

"It's Glinda." Glinda reminded her.

"Not in your song." Elphaba countered.

"Touché." Glinda said, trying to sound cultured.

"I've heard your worrying." Elphaba said, looking concerned.

"I don't believe I have voiced any such worries." Glinda said, sounding indignant. Remembering she was in her bed she yanked the covers up in an attempt to preserve her dignity.

Elphaba narrowed her eyes in an expression that seemed to say 'oh, Glinda don't be ridiculous, this is me'. Then she remembered what it was that Glinda had said.

"You don't think that after all this time I can't hear your pleas?" Elphaba asked.

Glinda shook her head.

"Of course I can Glin." Elphaba said, he endearment slipping easily from her as if they were still huddled together in her bed, sitting out a summer storm.

"There's nothing you can do about it though, is there? Not even you with all your prowess are quite that good." Glinda said furrowing her brow as she let the sheets drop. "Though there are those rumours..."

"You know very well they aren't true." Elphaba said, making Glinda blush. "And no, I can't do that but I can take you away from here."

Glinda paled. "Leave my husband?"

"You have no husband by rights." Elphaba said, sitting on the end of Glinda's bed.

"And who does have rights over me? You?" Glinda asked tartly.

"Maybe I should do." Elphaba said. "But your rights are yours as is your freedom to leave this place."

"Freedom." Glinda laughed. "What's that?"

"Flying through a starry sky with nothing but the wind beneath you." Elphaba offered, glancing pointedly at her broom propped up against the window.

"And as for children?" Glinda asked.

"A burden you were never meant to bear, my sweet." Elphaba said, then seeing Glinda's face fall continued. "There's a boy."

"Yours?"Glinda asked, trying to hide the hurt.

Elphaba shrugged her shoulders.

"I think you'd remember." Glinda said.

"All I know is that I spent a time unconscious in a mauntery and was presented with him on my leaving." Elphaba played with the seam of her cloak as she spoke. "He is Liir, a boy of about 10. I'm living at Kiamo Ko-" She paused when recognition flickered across Glinda's face "-yes, Fiyero's place with his wife and family – there are women there that look after the children but he needs a mother."

"Isn't that what you are?" Glinda asked.

Elphaba shook her head. "I think I only had the capacity to love one person and I have already done that so there is none left for a boy I don't even know is mine."

Glinda frowned before smiling when she realised that the comment was directed at her.

"So are you coming?" Elphaba asked.

Glinda looked from the closed door of her room to the window and back to Elphaba. "I won't live at Kiamo Ko." She said.

Elphaba smiled.


End file.
